If one dear saint of God had perished, so might all; if one of the covenant ones be lost, so may all be, and then there is no gospel promise true; but the Bible is a lie, and there is nothing in it worth my acceptance. I will be an infidel at once, when I can believe that a saint of God can ever fall finally. If God hath loved me once, then he will love me for ever.

The objects of everlasting love never change. Those whom God hath called, he will justify; whom he has justified, he will sanctify; and whom he sanctifies, he will glorify.

The thing seems so contrary, that I am obliged, when once I say God, to include the idea of an unchanging being.

God’s elect are here meant by “the sons of Jacob,”-those whom he foreknew and fore-ordained to everlasting salvation.

Now then, how many of you have had personal manifestations? “Oh!” you say “that is enthusiasm- that is fanaticism.” Well, it is a blessed enthusiasm too, for the sons of Jacob have had peculiar manifestations. They have talked with God as a man talketh with his friend- they have whispered in the ear of Jehovah; Christ hath been with them to sup with them, and they with Christ; and the Holy Spirit hath shone into their souls with such a mighty radiance that they could not doubt about special manifestations. The “sons of Jacob” are the men, who enjoy these manifestations.

Now do not get fretting, and say, with the self-conceit of misery, “I am the man who hath seen affliction.” Why “the Man of Sorrows” was afflicted more than you; Jesus was indeed a mourner. You only see the skirts of the garments of affliction. You never have trials like his. You do not understand what troubles mean; you have hardly sipped the cup of trouble you have only had a drop or two, but Jesus drunk the dregs. Fear not saith God, “I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob,” men of peculiar trials, “are not consumed.”

Then Jacob was a man of prayer-a man who wrestled, and groaned, and prayed. There is a man up yonder who never prayed this morning, before coming up to the house of God. Ah! you poor heathen don’t you prays No! he says “I never thought of such a thing- for years I have not prayed.”

Well, I hope you may before you die. Live and die without prayer, and you will pray long enough when you get to hell. There is a woman: she did not pray this morning; she was so busy sending her children to the Sunday school, she had no time to pray. No time to prays Had you time to dress?

There is a time for every purpose under heaven, and if you had purposed to pray, you would have prayed. Sons of God cannot live without prayer. They are wrestling Jacobs. They are men in whom the Holy Ghost so works, that they can no more live without prayer than I can live without breathing. They must pray. Sirs, mark you, if you are living without prayer, you are living without Christ; and dying like that, your portion will be in the lake which burneth with fire. God redeem you, God rescue you from such a lot! But you who are “the sons of Jacob,” take comfort, for God is immutable.

“Therefore ye sons Jacob are not consumed.” “Consumed?” How? how can man be consumed? Why, there are two ways. We might have been consumed in hell. If God had been a changing God, the “sons of Jacob” here this morning, might have been consumed in hell; but for God’s unchanging love I should have been a faggot in the fire. But there is a way of being consumed in this world; there is such a thing as being condemned before you die- “condemned already;” there is such a thing as being alive, and yet being absolutely dead. We might have been left to our own devices- and then where should we have been now? Revelling with the drunkard, blaspheming Almighty God. Oh? had he left you, dearly beloved, had he been a changing God, ye had been amongst the filthiest of the filthy, and the vilest of the vile. Cannot you remember in your life, seasons similar to those I have felt? I have gone right to the edge of sin- some strong temptation has taken hold of both my arms, so that I could not wrestle with it. I have been pushed along, dragged as by an awful satanic power to the very edge of some horrid precipice. I have looked down, down, down, and seen my portion; I quivered on the brink of ruin. I have been horrified, as, with my hair upright, I have thought of the sin I was about to commit, the horrible pit into which I was about to fall. A strong arm hath saved me. I have started back and cried, O God! could I have gone so near sin, and yet come back again? Could I have walked right up to the furnace and not fallen down, like Nebuchadnezzar’s strong men, devoured by the very heat? Oh! is it possible I should be here this morning, when I think of the sins I have committed, and the crimes which have crossed my wicked imagination? Yes, I am here, unconsumed, because the Lord changes not. Oh! if he had changed, we should have been consumed in a dozen ways; if the Lord had changed, you and I should have been consumed by ourselves; for after all Mr. Self is the worst enemy a Christian has. We should have proved suicides to our own souls; we should have mixed the cup of poison for our own spirits, if the Lord had not been an unchanging God, and dashed the cup out of our hands when we were about to drink it. Then we should have been consumed by God himself if he had not been a changeless God. We call God a Father- but there is not a father in this world who would not have killed all his children long ago, so provoked would he have been with them, if he had been half as much troubled as God has been with his family. He has the most troublesome family in the whole world, unbelieving, ungrateful, disobedient, forgetful, rebellious, wandering, murmuring, and stiff-necked. Well it is that he is longsuffering, or else he would have taken not only the rod, but the sword to some of us long ago. But there was nothing in us to love at first, so there cannot be less now.

John Newton used to tell a whimsical story, and laugh at it too, of a good woman who said, in order to prove the doctrine of Election, “Ah! sir, the Lord must have loved me before I was born, or else he would not have seen anything in me to love afterwards.” I am sure it is true in my case, and true in respect most of God’s people; for there is little to love in them after they are born, that if he had not loved them before then, he would have seen no reason to choose them after- but since he loved them without works, he loves them without works still; since their good works did not win his affection, bad works cannot sever that affection- since their righteousness did not bind his love to them, so their wickedness cannot snap the golden links. He loved them out of pure sovereign grace, and he will love them still. But we should have been consumed by the devil and by our enemies-consumed by the world, consumed by our sins, by our trials and in a hundred other ways, if God had ever changed.

Well, now, time fails us, and I can say but little. I have only just cursorily touched on the text. I now hand it to you. May the Lord help you “sons of Jacob” to take home this portion of meat; digest it well, and feed upon it. May the Holy Ghost sweetly apply the glorious things that are written! And may you have “a feast of fat things, of wines on the lees well refined!” Remember God is the same, whatever is removed. Your friends may be disaffected, your ministers may be taken away, every thing may change; but God does not. Your brethren may chance and cast out your name as vile: but God will love you still. Let your station in life change, and your property be gone; let your whole life be shaken, and you become weak and sickly; let everything flee away-there is one place where change cannot put his finger; there is one name on which mutability can never be written; there is one heart which never can alter; that heart is God’s- that name Love.

THE CARNAL MIND ENMITY

AGAINST GOD.

NO. 20

against the carnal mind. He declares it to be enmity against God. When we

consider what man once was, only second to the angels, the companion of

God, who walked with him in the garden of Eden in the cool of the day;

when we think of him as being made in the very image of his Creator, pure,

spotless, and unblemished, we cannot but feel bitterly grieved to find such

an accusation as this preferred against us as a race, We may well hang our

harps upon the willows while we listen to the voice of Jehovah, solemnly

speaking to his rebellious creature. “How art thou fallen from heaven, thou

son of the morning!” “Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect

in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God every precious stone

was thy covering-the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was

prepared in thee in the day that thou was created. Thou art the anointed

cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy

mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones

of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created,

till iniquity was found in thee, and thou hast sinned, therefore I will cast

thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and will destroy thee, O

covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.”

There is much to sadden us in a view of the ruins of our race. As the

Carthaginian who might tread the desolate site of his much-loved city,

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would shed many tears when he saw it laid in heaps by the Romans; or as

the Jew, wandering through the deserted streets of Jerusalem, would

lament that the plough share had marred the beauty and the glory of that

city which was the joy of the whole earth; so ought we to mourn for

ourselves and our race, when we behold the ruins of that goodly structure

which God had piled, that creature, matchless in symmetry, second only to

angelic intellect, that mighty being, man,-when we behold how he is “fallen,

fallen, fallen, from his high estate “and lies in a mass of destruction. A few

years ago a star was seen blazing out with considerable brilliance, but soon

disappeared; it has since been affirmed that it was a world on fire,

thousands of millions of miles from us, and yet the rays of the conflagration

reached us; the noiseless messenger of light gave to the distant dwellers on

this globle the alarm of “A world on fire!” But what is the conflagration of

a distant planet, what is the destruction of the mere material of the most

ponderous orb, compared with this fall of humanity, this wreck of all that is

holy and sacred in ourselves? To us, indeed, the things are scarcely

comparable, since we are deeply interested in one, though not in the other.

The fall of Adam was OUR fall; we fell in and with him; we were equal

sufferers; it is the ruin of our own house that we lament, it is the

destruction of our own city that we bemoan when we stand and see written

in lines too plain for us to mistake their meaning, “The carnal mind”-that

very self-same mind which was once holiness, and has now become carnal-

”is emnity against God.” May God help me this morning, solemnly to

prefer this indictment against you all! Oh! that the Holy Spirit may so

convince us of sin, that we may unanimously plead “guilty” before God.

There is no difficulty in understanding my text: it needs scarcely any

explanation. We all know that the word “carnal” here signifies fleshly. The

old translators rendered the passage thus: “The mind of the flesh is enmity

against God.”-that is to say, the natural mind, that soul which we inherit

from our fathers, that which was born within us when our bodies were

passions of the soul; it is this which has gone astray from God and become

enmity against him.

But before we enter upon a discussion of the doctrine of the text, observe

how strongly the Apostle expresses it. “The carnal mind,” he says, it is

say it is opposed to God merely, but it is the positive enmity. It is not

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but corruption; it is not rebellious, it is rebellion: it is not wicked, it is

wickedness itself. The heart, though it be deceitful, is positively deceit; it is

evil in the concrete, sin in the essence, it is the distillation, the quintescence

of all things that are vile; it is not envious against God, it is envy; it is not

at enmity, it is actual enmity.

not charge manhood with an aversion merely to the dominion, laws, or

doctrines of Jehovah, but it strikes a deeper and surer blow. It does not

strike man upon the head, but it penetrates into his heart, it lays the axe at

person of the Godhead, against the Deity, against the mighty Maker of this

world, not at enmity against his Bible or against his Gospel, though that

were true, but against God himself, against his essence, his existence, and

his person. Let us, then, weigh the words of the text, for they are solemn

words. They are well put together by that master of eloquence, Paul, and

they were, moreover, dictated by the Holy Spirit, who telleth man how to

speak aright. May he help us to expound, as he has already given us the

passage to explain.

thirdly, we will still further enter into the depths of the subject, and press it

we have time, we will deduce one or two doctrines from the general fact.

statement “the carnal mind is enmity against God.” It needs no proof, for

since it is written in God’s word, we, as Christian men, are bound to bow

before it. The words of the Scriptures are words of infinite wisdom, and if

reason cannot see the ground of a statement of revelation, it is bound, most

reverently, to believe it, since we are well assured even should it be above

our reason, that it cannot be contrary thereunto. Here I find it written in

the Scriptures, “the carnal mind is enmity against God;” and that of itself is

enough for me. But did I need witnesses, I would conjure up the nations of

antiquity; I would unroll the volume of ancient history, I would tell you of

the awful deeds of mankind. It may be I might move your souls to

detestation, if I spake of the cruelty of this race to itself, if I showed you

how it made the world an Aceldema by its wars, and deluged it with blood

by its fightings and murders, if I should recite the black list of vices in

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which whole nations have indulged or even bring before you the characters

of some of the most eminent philosophers, I should blush to speak of them,

and you would refuse to hear; yea it would be impossible for you, as

refined inhabitants of a civilized country, to endure the mention of the

crimes that were committed by those very men, who now-a-days, are held

up as being paragons of perfection. I fear if all the truth were written, we

should rise up from reading the lives of earth’s mightest heroes and

proudest sages, and would say at once of all of them, “They are clean gone

out of the way; they are altogether become unprofitable; there is none that

doeth good; no not one.”

And did not that suffice, I would point you to the delusions of the heathen;

I would tell you of their priestcraft, by which their souls have been

enthralled in superstition; I would drag their gods before you; I would let

you witness the horrid obscenities, the diabolical rites which are to these

besotted men most sacred things. Then after you had heard what the

is his devotion, what must be his impiety? If this be his ardent love of the

Godhead, what must his hatred thereof be? Ye would, I am sure, at once

confess, did ye know what the race is, that the indictment is proven and

that the world must unreservedly and truthfully exclaim, “guilty.”

A further argument I might find in the fact, that the best of men have been

always the readiest to confess their depravity. The holiest men, the most

free from impurity, have always felt it most. He whose garments are the

whitest, will best perceive the spots upon them. He whose crown shineth

the brightest, will know when he hath lost a jewel. He who giveth the most

light to the world, will always be able to discover his own darkness. The

angels of heaven veil their faces; and the angels of God on earth, his chosen

people, must always veil their faces with humility, when they think of what

they were. Hear David: he was none of those who boast of a holy nature

and a pure disposition. He says “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in

sin did my mother conceive me.” Here all those holy men who have written

in the inspired volume, and ye shall find them all confessing that they were

not clean, no, not one; yea, one of them exclaimed, “O wretched man that I

am; who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

And more, I will summon one other witness to the truthfulness of this act,

who shall decide the question; it shall be your conscience. Conscience, I

will put thee in the witness-box, and cross-examine thee this morning!

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Conscience, truly answer! be not drugged with the laudanum of selfsecurity!

speak the truth! didst thou never hear the heart say, “I wish there

were no God?” Have not all men, at times, wished that our religion were

not true? Though they could not entirely rid their souls of the idea of the

Godhead, did they not wish that there might not be God? Have they not

had the desire that it might turn out that all these divine realities were a

delusion, a farce, and an imposture? “Yea,” saith every man, “that has

crossed my mind sometimes. I have wished I might indulge in folly; I have

wished there were no laws to restrain me; I have wished, as the fool, that

there were no God.” That passage in the Psalms, “The fool hath said in his

heart, there is no God,” is wrongly translated. It should be, “The fool hath

God, for he knows there is a God, but he says, “No God,-I don’t want any,

I wish there were none.” And who amongst us has not been so foolish as to

desire that there were no God? Now conscience, answer another question!

Thou hast confessed that thou hast at times wished there were no God,

now, suppose a man wished another dead, would not that show that he

hated him? Yes, it would. And so, my friends, the wish that there were no

God, proves that we dislike God. When I wish such a man dead and rotting

otherwise I should not wish him to be extinct. So that wish-and I do not

think there has been a man in this world who has not had it-proves that

“the carnal mind is enmity against God.”

But conscience, I have another question. Has not thine heart ever desired,

since there is a God, that he were a little less holy, a little less pure, so that

those things which are now great crimes might be regarded as venial

offenses, as peccadillos? Has thy heart never said “Would to God these sins

were not forbidden. Would that he would be merciful and pass them by

without an atonement! Would that he were not so severe, so rigorously

just, so sternly strict to his integrity.” Hast thou never said that, my heart?

Conscience must reply, “Thou hast.” Well, that wish to change God,

proves that thou art not in love with the God that now is, the God of

heaven and earth; and though thou mayest talk of natural religion, and

boast that thou dost reverence the God of the green fields, the grassy

meads, the swelling flood, the rolling thunder, the azure sky, the starry

night, and the great universe-though, thou lovest the poetic beau ideal of

Deity, it is not the God of Scripture, for thou hast wished to change his

nature, and in that hast thou proved that thou art at enmity with him. But

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wherefore, conscience, should I go thus round about? Thou canst bear

faithful witness, if thou wouldst speak the truth that each person here has

so transgressed against God, so continually broken his laws, violated his

sabbath, trampled on his statutes, despised his gospel, that it is true, aye,

most true, that “the carnal mind is enmity against God.”

evil. What a broad assertion it is. It is not a single carnal mind, or a certain

including every individual. Whatever mind may properly be called carnal,

not having been spiritualized by the power of God’s Holy Ghost, is “enmity

against God.”

carnal mind in the world is at enmity against God. This does not exclude

even infants at the mother’s breast. We call them innocent, and so they are

of actual transgression, but as the poet says, “Within the youngest breast

there lies a stone.” There is in the carnal mind of an infant, enmity against

God; it is not developed, but it lieth there. Some say that children learn sin

by imitation. But no; take a child away, place it under the most pious

influences, let the very air it breathes be purified by piety; let it constantly

drink in draughts of holiness; let it hear nothing but the voice of prayer and

praise; let its ear be always kept in tune by notes of sacred song; and that

child, notwithstanding, may still become one of the grossest of

transgressors; and though placed apparently on the very road to heaven, it

shall, if not directed by divine grace, march downwards to the pit. Oh! how

true it is that some who have had the best of parents have been the worst

of sons, that many who have been trained up under the most Holy auspices,

in the midst of most favorable scenes of piety have nevertheless, become

loose and wanton! So it is not by imitation, but it is by nature, that the

child is evil. Grant me that the child is carnal, and my text says, “The carnal

mind is enmity against God.” The young crocodile, I have heard, when

broken from the shell, will in a moment begin to put itself in a posture of

attack, opening its mouth as if it had been taught and trained. We know

that young lions when tamed and domesticated, still will have the wild

nature of their fellows of the forest, and were liberty given them, would

prey as fiercely as others. So with the child; you may bind him with the

green withes of education, you may do what you will with him, since you

cannot change his heart, that carnal mind shall still be at enmity against

God; and notwithstanding intellect, talent, and all you may give to boot, it

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shall be of the same sinful complexion as every other child, if not as

apparently evil; for, “the carnal mind is enmity against God.”

And if this applies to children, equally does it include every class of men.

There be some men that are born into this world master spirits, who walk

about it as giants, wrapped in mantles of light and glory. I refer to the

poets, men who stand aloft like Colossi, mightier than we, seeming to be

descended from celestial spheres. There be others of acute intellect, who,

searching into mysteries of science, discover things that have been hidden

from the creation of the world; men of keen research, and mighty erudition;

and yet of each of these-poet, philosopher, metaphysician and great

discoverer-it shall be said “The carnal mind is enmity against God”. Ye

may train him up, ye may make his intellect almost angelic, ye may

strengthen his soul until he shall take what are riddles to us, and unravel

them with his fingers in a moment; ye may make him so mighty, that he can

grasp the iron secrets of the eternal hills and grind them to atoms in his fist;

ye may give him an eye so keen, that he can penetrate the arcana of rocks

and mountains; ye may add a soul so potent that he may slay the giant

Sphinx, that had for ages troubled the mightiest men of learning; yet when

ye have done all, his mind shall be a depraved one, and his carnal heart

shall still be in opposition to God. Yea, more, ye shall bring him to the

house of prayer; ye shall make him sit constantly under the clearest

preaching of the word, where he shall hear the doctrines of grace in all

their purity, attended by a holy unction; but if that holy unction does not

rest upon him, all shall be vain: he shall still come most regularly, but like

the pious door of the chapel, that turneth in and out, he shall still be the

same; having an outside superficial religion, and his carnal mind shall still

be at enmity against God. Now, this is not my assertion, it is the

declaration of God’s word, and you must leave it if you do not believe it;

but quarrel not with me, it is my Master’s message, and it is true of every

one of you,-men, women, and children, and myself too,-that if we had not

been regenerated and converted, if we have not experienced a change of

heart, our carnal mind is still at enmity against God.

times enmity against God. “Oh,” say some, “it may be true that we are at

times opposed to God, but surely we are not always so.” “There be

moments,” says one, “when I feel rebellious, at times my passions lead me

astray; but surely there are other favorable seasons when I really am

friendly to God, and offer true devotion. I have (continues the objector,)

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stood upon the mountain-top, until my whole soul has kindled with the

scene below, and my lips have uttered the song of praise,-

Yes, but mark, what is true one day is not false another, “the carnal mind is

enmity against God” at all times. The wolf may sleep, but it is a wolf still.

The snake with its azure hues, may slumber amid the flowers, and the child

may stroke its slimy back, but it is a serpent still; it does not change its

nature, though it is dormant. The sea is the house of storms, even when it

is glassy as a lake; the thunder is still the mighty rolling thunder, when it is

so much aloft that we hear it not. And the heart, when we perceive not its

ebullitions, when it belches not forth its lava, and sendeth not forth the hot

stones of its corruption, is still the same dread volcano. At all times, at all

hours, at every moment, (I speak this as God speaketh it,) if ye are carnal,

ye are each one of you enmity against God.

of the mind is enmity against God. The text says, “The carnal mind is

enmity against God,” that is, the entire man, every part of him-every

power, every passion. It is a question often asked, “What part of man was

injured by the fall?” Some think that the fall was only felt by the affections,

and that the intellect was unimpaired; this they argue from the wisdom of

man, and the mighty discoveries he has made, such as the law of

gravitation, the steam engine and the sciences. Now, I consider these

things as being a very mean display of wisdom, compared with what is to

come in a hundred years, and very small compared with what might have

been, if man’s intellect had continued in its pristine condition. I believe that

fall crushed man entirely; albeit, when it rolled like an avalanche upon the

mighty temple of human nature some shafts were still left undestroyed, and

amidst the ruins you find here and there, a flute a pedestal, a cornice, a

column, not quite broken, yet the entire structure fell, and its most glorious

relics are fallen ones, levelled in the dust. The whole of man is defaced.

evil things far better than those which savor of piety. I hear a ribald song,

that music of hell shall jar in my ear when grey hairs shall be upon my head.

I hear a note of holy praise: alas! it is forgotten! For memory graspeth with

an iron hand ill things, but the good she holdeth with feeble fingers. She

suffereth the glorious timbers from the forest of Lebanon to swim down

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the stream of oblivion, but she stoppeth all the draff that floateth from the

foul city of Sodom. She will retain evil, she will lose good. Memory is

ought; we soon fix our heart upon a creature, but very seldom upon the

Creator; and when the heart is given to Jesus it is prone to wander. Look at

in an ill condition? Only give man something that shall well nigh intoxicate

him drug him with opium, and how will his imagination dance with joy!

Like a bird uncaged, how will it mount with more than eagles’ wings! He

sees things he had not dreamed of even in the shades of night. Why did not

his imagination work when his body was in a normal state -when it was

healthy? Simply because it is depraved; and until he had entered a foul

element-until the body had begun to quiver with a kind of intoxication-the

fancy would not hold its carnival. We have some splendid specimens of

what men could write, when they have been under the accursed influence

of ardent spirits. It is because the mind is so depraved that it loves

something which puts the body into an abnormal condition; and here we

have a proof that the imagination itself’ has gone astray. So with the

judgment-I might prove how ill it decides. So might I accuse the

conscience, and tell you how blind it is, and how it winks at the greatest

follies. I might review all our powers, and write upon the brow of each

one, “Traitor against heaven! Traitor against God!” The whole “carnal

mind is enmity against God.”

Now, my hearers, “the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants:” but

whenever I find a certain book much held in reverence by our episcopalian

brethren, entirely on my side, I always feel the greatest delight in quoting

from it. Do you know I am one of the best Churchmen in the world, the

very best, if you will judge me by the Articles, and the very worst if you

measure me in any other way. Measure me by the Articles of the Church of

England, and I will not stand second to any man under heaven’s blue sky in

preaching the gospel contained in them; for if there be an excellent epitome

of the Gospel, it is to be found in the Articles of the Church of England.

Let me show you that you have not been hearing strange doctrine. Here is

the 9th Article, upon Original or Birth Sin “Original Sin standth not in the

following of Adam; (as the Pelagians do vainly talk;) but it is the fault and

corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the

offspring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from original

righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh

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lusteth always contrary to the spirit; and, therefore, in every person born

into this world, it deserveth God’s wrath and damnation. And this infection

of nature doth remain, yea, in them that are regenerated; whereby the lust

the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affection, some the desire, of the

flesh, is not subject to the Law of God. And although there is no

condemnation for them that believe and are baptized, yet the Apostle doth

confess, that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of sin.” I want

nothing more. Will any one who believes in the Prayer Book dissent from

the doctrine that “the carnal mind is enmity against God?”

enormity of this guilt. I do fear, my brethren, that very often when we

consider our state, we think not so much of the guilt as of the misery. I

have sometimes read sermons upon the inclination of the sinner to evil, in

which it has been very powerfully proved, and certainly the pride of human

nature has been well humbled and brought low; but one thing always

strikes me, if it is left out, as being a very great omission, viz.-the doctrine

to tell him it is his sin; and if he cannot repent, we ought to show him that

sin is the sole cause of his disability-that all his alienation from God is sinthat

as long as he keeps from God it is sin. I fear many of us here must

acknowledge that we do not charge the sin of it to our own consciences.

Yes say we, we have many corruptions. Oh! yes. But we sit down very

contented. My brethren we ought not to do so. The having those

corruptions is our crime which should be confessed as an enormous evil;

and if I, as a minister of the Gospel, do not press home the sin of the thing,

I have missed what is the very virus of it. I have left out the very essence, if

I have not shown that it is a crime. Now, “the carnal mind is enmity against

God.” What a sin it is! This will appear in two ways. Consider the relation

in which we stand to God, and then remember what God is; and after I

have spoken of these two things, I hope, you will see, indeed, that it is a sin

to be at enmity with God.

What is God to us? He is the creator of the heavens and the earth; he bears

up the pillars of the universe, his breath perfumes the flowers; his pencil

paints them; he is the author of this fair creation; “we are the sheep of his

pasture, he hath made us, and not we ourselves.” He stands to us in the

relationship of a Maker and Creator, and from that fact he claims to be our

King. He is our legislator our law-maker; and then, to make our crime still

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worse and worse, he is the ruler of providence; for it is he who keeps us

from day to day. He supplies our wants; he keeps the breath within our

nostrils; he bids the blood still pursue its course through the veins; he

holdeth us in life, and preventeth us from death, he standeth before us, our

creator, our king our sustainer, our benefactor, and I ask, is it not a sin of

enormous magnitude-is it not high treason against the emperor of heaven-is

it not an awful sin, the depth of which we cannot fathom with the line of all

our judgment-that we, his creatures, dependent upon him, should be at

enmity with God?

me appeal personally to you in an interrogatory style for this has weight

with it. Sinner! why art thou at enmity with God? God is the God of love,

he is kind to his creatures; he regards you with his love of benevolence; for

this very day his sun hath shone upon you, this day you have had food and

raiment, and you have come up here in health and strength. Do you hate

God because he loves you? Is that the reason? Consider how many mercies

you have received at his hands all your lives long! You are born with a

body not deformed, you have had a tolerable share of health; you have

been recovered many times from sickness; when lying at the gates of death;

his arm has held back your soul from the last step to destruction. Do you

hate God for all this? Do you hate him because he spared your life by his

tender mercy? Behold his goodness that he hath spread before you! He

might have sent you to hell; but you are here. Now, do you hate God for

sparing you? Oh, wherefore art thou at enmity with him? My fellow

creature, dost thou not know that God sent his Son from his bosom, hung

him on the tree, and there suffered him to die for sinners, the just for the

unjust? and dost thou hate God for that? Oh, sinner, is this the cause of

thine enmity? Art thou so estranged that thou givest enmity for love? And

when he surroundeth thee with favors, girdeth thee with mercies, encircleth

thee with lovingkindness, dost thou hate him for this? He might say as

Jesus did to the Jews: “For which of these works do ye stone me?” For

which of these works do ye hate God? Did an earthly benefactor feed you,

would you hate him? Did he clothe you, would you abuse him to his face?

Did he give you talents, would you turn those powers against him? Oh,

speak! Would you forge the iron and strike the dagger into the heart of

your best friend? Do you hate your mother who nursed you on her knee?

Do you curse your father who so wisely watched over you? Nay, ye say,

we have some little gratitude towards earthly relatives. Where are your

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hearts, then? Where are your hearts, that ye can still despise God, and be at

enmity with him? Oh! diabolical crime! Oh! satanic enormity! Oh! iniquity

for which words fail in description! to hate the all-lovely-to despise the

essentially good-to abhor the constantly merciful-to spurn the everbeneficent-

to scorn the kind the gracious one, above all, to hate the God

who sent his Son to die for man! Ah! in that thought-”the carnal mind is

enmity against God,”-there is something which may make us shake; for it is

a terrible sin to be at enmity with God. I would I could speak more

powerfully, but my Master alone can impress upon you the enormous evil

of this horrid state of heart.

by merit, it must be by grace. If we are at enmity with God, what merit can

we have? How can we deserve anything from the being we hate? Even if

we were pure as Adam, we could not have any merit; for I do not think

Adam had any desert before his Creator. When he had kept all his Master’s

law, he was but an unprofitable servant; he had done no more than he

ought to have done, he had no surplus-no balance. But since we have

become enemies, how much less can we hope to be saved by works! Oh,

no; the whole Bible tells us, from beginning to end, that salvation is not by

the works of the law, but by the deeds of grace. Martin Luther declared

that he constantly preached justification by faith alone, “because,” said he,

“the people would forget it; so that I was obliged almost to knock my

Bible against their heads, to send it into their hearts.” So it is true we

constantly forget that salvation is by grace alone. We always want to be

putting in some little scrap of our own virtue; we want to be doing

something. I remember a saying of old Matthew Wilkes: “Saved by your

works! you might as well try to go to America in a paper boat!” Saved by

your works! It is impossible! Oh no; the poor legalist is like a blind horse

going round and round the mill, or like the prisoner going up the treadmill,

and finding himself no higher after all he has done; he has no solid

confidence, no firm ground to rest upon. He has not done enough-”never

enough.” Conscience always says, “this is not perfection; it ought to have

been better.” Salvation for enemies must be by an ambassador-by an

atonement-yea, by Christ.

of our nature. It is true that by birth we are at enmity with God. How

necessary then it is, that our nature should be changed there are few people

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who sincerely believe this. They think that if they cry “Lord, have mercy

upon me,” when they lie a-dying, They shall go to heaven directly. Let me

suppose an impossible case for a moment. Let me imagine a man entering

heaven without a change of heart. He comes within the gates. He hears a

with God. He could not join the song, for he would not know the tune.

There he would stand; silent, motionless; till Christ should say, with a voice

louder than ten thousand thunders, “What dost thou here? Enemies at a

marriage banquet? Enemies in the children’s house? Enemies in heaven?

Get thee gone! depart ye cursed, into everlasting fire in hell!” Oh! sirs, if

the unregenerate man could enter heaven, I mention once more the oftrepeated

saying of Whitfield, he would be so unhappy in heaven, that he

would ask God to let him run down into hell for shelter. There must be a

change, if ye consider the future state; for how can enemies to God ever sit

down at the banquet of the Lamb?

change must be worked by a power beyond your own. An enemy may

his nature to be an enemy he may change himself into a friend; but if it is

the very essence of his existence to be enmity, positive enmity, enmity

cannot change itself. No, there must be something done more than we can

accomplish. This is just what is forgotten in these days. We must have

more preaching of the Holy Spirit, if we are to have more conversion

work. I tell you, sirs, if you change yourselves, and make yourselves better,

and better, and better, a thousand times, you will never be good enough for

heaven, till God’s Spirit has laid his hand upon you; till he has renewed the

heart, till he has purified the soul, till he has changed the entire spirit and

new-made the man, there can be no entering heaven. How seriously, then,

should each stand and think. Here am I, a creature of a day, a mortal born

to die, but yet an immortal! At present I am at enmity with God. What shall

I do? Is it not my duty, as well as my happiness, to ask, whether there be a

way to be reconciled to God?

Oh! weary slaves of sin, are not your ways the paths of folly? Is it wisdom,

O my fellow creatures, is it wisdom to hate your Creator? Is it wisdom to

stand in opposition against him? Is it prudent to despise the riches of his

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grace? If it be wisdom, it is hell’s wisdom; if it be wisdom, it is a wisdom

which is folly with God. Oh! may God grant that you may turn unto Jesus

with full purpose of heart! He is the ambassador; he it is who can make

peace through his blood; and though you came in here an enemy, it is

possible you may go out through that door a friend yet, if you can but look

to Jesus Christ, the brazen serpent which was lifted up.

And now, it may be, some of you are convinced of sin, by the Holy Spirit. I

will now proclaim to you the way of salvation. “As Moses lifted up the

serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that

whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Behold, O trembling penitent the means of thy deliverance. Turn thy

tearing eye to yonder Mount of Calvary! see the victim of justice-the

sacrifice of atonement for your transgression. View the Savior in his

agonies, with streams of blood purchasing thy soul, and with intensest

confess thy guilt. O come thou condemned one, self-condemned, and turn

thine eye this way, for one look will save. Sinner, thou art bitten. Look! it

is nought but “Look!” It is simply “Look!” If thou canst but look to Jesus

thou art safe. Hear the voice of the Redeemer: “Look unto me, and be ye

saved.” Look! Look! Look! O guilty souls.

May my blessed Master help you to come to him, and draw you to his Son,

for Jesu’s sake. Amen and Amen.

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CHRIST’S PEOPLE-IMITATORS

OF HIM.

NO. 21

“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived

that they were unlearned And ignorant men, they marvelled; and

they took knowledge of Shem, that the: had been with Jesus.”

Acts 4:13.

with oaths and curses denied that he knew his name, is now to be found

side by side with the loving John, boldly declaring that there is salvation in

none other name save that of Jesus Christ, and preaching the resurrection

of the dead, through the sacrifice of his dying Lord. The Scribes and

Pharisees soon discover the reason of his boldness. Rightly did they guess

that it rested not in his learning or his talents, for neither Peter nor John

had been educated, they had been trained as fishermen, their education was

a knowledge of the sea-of the fisherman’s craft: none other had they; their

boldness could not therefore spring from the self-sufficiency of knowledge,

but from the Spirit of the living God. Nor did they acquire their courage

from their station; for rank will confer a sort of dignity upon a man, and

make him speak with a feigned authority even when he has no talent or

men, who stood in no official capacity; men without rank or station. When

they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were

unlearned and private individuals, they marvelled, and they came to a right

conclusion as to the-source of their power-they had been dwelling with

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Jesus. Their conversation with the Prince of light and glory, backed up, as

they might also have known, by the influence of the Holy Spirit, without

which even that eminently holy example would have been in vain, had

made them bold for their Master’s cause. Oh! my brethren, it were well if

this commendation, so forced from the lips of enemies, could also be

compelled by our own example. If we could live like Peter and John; if our

lives were “living epistles of God, known and read of all men;” if,

whenever we were seen, men would take knowledge of us, that we had

been with Jesus, it would be a happy thing for this world, and a blessed

thing for us. It is concerning that I am to speak to you this morning; and as

God gives me grace, I will endeavor to stir up your minds by way of

remembrance, and urge you so to imitate Jesus Christ, our heavenly

pattern, that men may perceive that you are disciples of the holy Son of

God.

Christ. You have read lives of Christ, beautifully and eloquently written,

and you have admired the talent of the persons who could write so well,

but the best life of Christ is his living biography, written out in the words

and actions of his people. If we, my brethren, were what we profess to be;

if the Spirit of the Lord were in the heart of all his children, as we could

desire; and if, instead of having abundance of formal professors, we were

all possessors of that vital grace, I will tell you not only what we ought to

be but what we should be; we should be pictures of Christ, yea, such

striking likenesses of him, that the world would not have to hold us up by

the hour together, and say, “Well, it seems somewhat of a likeness;” but

they would, when they once beheld us, exclaim, “He has been with Jesus;

he has been taught of him, he is like him; he has caught the very idea of the

holy Man of Nazareth, and he expands it out into his very life and every

day actions.”

In enlarging upon this point, it will be necessary to premise, that when we

here affirm that men should be such and such a thing, we refer to the

people of God. We do not wish to speak to them in any legal way. We are

not under the law, but under grace. Christian men hold themselves bound

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to keep all God’s precepts: but the reason why they do so is not because

believe, that having been redeemed by blood divine; having been purchased

by Jesus Christ, they are more bound to keep his commands than they

would have been if they were under the law; they hold themselves to be ten

thousand-fold more debtors to God, than they could have been under the

Mosaic dispensation. Not of force; not of compulsion; not through tear of

the whip; not through legal bondage; but through pure, disinterested love

and gratitude to God they lay themselves out for his service seeking to be

Israelites indeed in whom there is no guile. This much I have declared lest

any man should think that I am preaching works as the way to salvation, I

will yield to none in this. That I will ever maintain-that by grace we are

saved, and not by ourselves; but equally must I testify, that where the grace

of God is, it will produce fitting deeds. To these I am ever bound to exhort

you, while ye are ever expected to have good works for necessary

purposes. Again, I do not, when I say that a believer should be a striking

likeness of Jesus, suppose that any one Christian will perfectly exhibit all

the features of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; yet my brethren, the fact

that perfection is beyond our reach should not diminish the ardor of our

desire after it. The artist, when he paints knows right well that he shall not

be able to excel Apelles; but that does not discourage him; he uses his

brush with all the greater pains, that he may at least in some humble

measure resemble the great master. So the sculptor; though persuaded that

he will not rival Praxiteles, will hew out the marble still, and seek to be as

near the model as possible. Just so the Christian man, though he feels he

never can mount to the height of complete excellence, and perceives that

he never can on earth become the exact image of Christ, still holds it up

before him, and measures his own deficiencies by the distance between

himself and Jesus. This will he do, forgetting all he has attained, he will

conformed more and more to the image of Christ Jesus.

nowadays called impudence, but the grace is equally valuable by whatever

name it may be called. I suppose if the Scribes had given a definition of

Peter and John, they would have called them impudent fellows.

Jesus Christ and his disciples were noted for their courage. “When they

saw the boldness of Peter and John, they took knowledge of them, that

they had been with Jesus.” Jesus Christ never fawned upon the rich; he

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stooped not to the great and noble, he stood erect, a man before men,-the

prophet of the people, speaking out holdly and freely what he thought.

Have you never admired that mighty deed of his, when going to the city

where he had lived and been brought up; knowing that a prophet had no

honor in his own country, the boon was put into his hands; he had but then

commenced his ministry; yet without tremor he unrolled the sacred volume

and what did he take for his text? Most men, coming to their own

neighborhood would have chosen a subject adapted to the taste, in order to

earn fame. But what doctrine did Jesus preach that morning? One which in

Scriptures, and began to read thus: “Many widows were in Israel in the

days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months,

when great famine was throughout all the land, but unto none of them was

Elias sent, save unto Sarepta a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a

widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet;

and none off them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.” Then he

began to tell, how God saveth whom he pleases, and rescues whom he

chooses. Ah! how they gnashed their teeth upon him, dragged him out, and

would have cast him from the brow of the hill. Do you not admire his

intrepidity? He saw their teeth gnashing; he knew their hearts were hot

with enmity, while their mouths foamed with revenge and malice: still he

stood like the angel who shut the lion’s mouths; he feared them not;

faithfully he proclaimed what he knew to be the truth of God, and still read

on despite them all. So in his discourses. If he saw a Scribe or a Pharisee in

the congregation, he did not keep back part of the price, but pointing his

finger, he said, “Woe Unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites;” and

when a lawyer came, saying, “Master, in speaking thus, thou condemnest

us also;” he turned round and said, “Woe unto you, lawyers, for ye bind

heavy burdens upon men, while ye yourselves will not touch them with so

much as one of your fingers.” He dealt out honest truth, he never knew the

fear of man; he trembled at none; he stood out God’s chosen, whom he had

anointed above his fellows, careless of man’s esteem. My friends, be like

Christ in this. Have none of the time-serving religion of the present day,

which is merely exhibited in evangelical drawing rooms-a religion which

only flourishes in a hot-bed atmosphere, a religion which is only to be

perceived in good company. No, if ye are the servants of God, be like Jesus

Christ, bold for your Master; never blush to own your religion; your

love to Christ will never dishonor you, it may bring some temporary slight

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from your friends, or slanders from your enemies: but live on, and you

shall; live down their calumnies; live on and ye shall stand amongst the

glorified by his angels, and admired by them that love him. Be like Jesus,

very valiant for your God; so that when they shall see your boldness, they

may say, “He has been with Jesus.”

But no one feature will give a portrait of a man; so the one virtue of

boldness will never make you like Christ. There have been some who have

been noble men, but have carried their courage to excess; they have thus

been caricatures of Christ, and not portraits of him. We must amalgamate

brass; let love be the gold. Let us mix the two together, so shall we

produce a rich Corinthian metal, fit to be manufactured into the beautiful

gate of the temple. Let your love and courage be mingled together. The

man who is bold may indeed accomplish wonders. John Knox did much,

but be might perhaps have done more if he had had a little love. Luther was

a conqueror-peace to his ashes, and honor to his name!-still, we who look

upon him at a distance, think that if he had sometimes mixed a little

suaviter in modo, and spoken somewhat more gently, he might have done

even more good than he did. So, brethren, while we too are bold, let us

ever imitate the loving Jesus. The child comes to him: he takes it on his

knee, saying, “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.”

A widow has just lost her only son: he weeps at the bier, and with a word

restores life to the dead man. He sees a paralytic, a leper, or a man long

confined to his bed; he speaks, they rise, and are healed. He lived for

others, not for himself. His constant labors were without any motive,

except the good of those who lived in the world. And to crown all, ye

know the mighty sacrifice he made, when he condescended to lay down his

life for man-when on the tree, quivering with agony, and hanging in the

utmost extremity of suffering, he submitted to die for our sakes, that we

might be saved. Behold in Christ, love consolidated! he was one mighty

pillar of benevolence. As God is love, so Christ is love. Oh, ye Christians,

be ye loving also. Bet your love and your beneficence beam out on all men.

Say not, “Be ye warmed, and be ye filled,” but “give a portion to seven,

and also to eight.” If ye cannot imitate Howard, and unlock the prison

doors-if ye cannot visit the sad house of misery, yet each in your proper

sphere speak kind words, do kind actions, live out Christ again in the

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kindness of your life. If there is one virtue which most commends

Christians, it is that of kindness; it is to love the people of God, to love the

church, to love the word, to love all. But how many have we in our

churches of crabtree Christians, who have mixed such a vast amount of

vinegar and such; tremendous quantity of gall in their constitutions, that

they can scarcely speak one good word to you; they imagine it impossible

to defend religion except by passionate ebullitions, they cannot speak for

their dishonored Master without being angry with their opponent; sad if

anything is awry, whether it be in the house, the church, or anywhere else,

they conceive it to he their duty to set their faces like a flint, and to defy

everybody. They are like isolated icebergs; no one cares to go near them.

They float about on the sea of forgetfulness, until at last they are melted

and gone; and though, good souls, we shall be happy enough to meet them

in heaven, we are heartily glad to get rid of them from the earth. They were

always so unamiable in disposition, that we would rather live an eternity

with them in heaven, than five minutes on earth. Be ye not thus, my

brethren. Imitate Christ in your loving spirits; speak kindly, act kindly, and

do kindly, that men may say of you, “He has been with Jesus.”

humility, in which let us imitate him. While we will not cringe or bow-(far

from it, we are the freemen whom the truth makes free, we walk through

this world equal to all inferior to none)-yet we would endeavor to be like

Christ continually humble. Oh, thou proud Christian, (for though it be

paradox there must be some, I think; I would not be so uncharitable as to

say that there are not some such persons) if thou art a Christian, I bid thee

look at thy Master talking to the children, bending from the majesty of his

divinity to speak to mankind on earth, tabernacling with the peasants of

Galilee, and then-ay depth of condescension unparalleled-washing his

disciples’ feet, and wiping then with the towel after supper. This is your

Master whom ye profess to worship; this is your Lord, whom ye adore.

And ye, some of you who count yourselves Christians, cannot speak to a

person who is not dressed in the same kind of clothing as yourselves, who

has not exactly as much money per year as you have. In England it is true

that a sovereign will not speak to a shilling, and a shilling will not notice a

sixpence, and a sixpence will sneer at a penny. But it should not be so with

Christians. We ought to forget caste, degree, and rank, when we come into

Christ’s church. Recollect, Christian, who your Master was-a man of the

poor. He lived with them; he ate with them. And will ye walk with lofty

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heads and stiff necks, looking with insufferable contempt upon your

meaner fallow-worms? What are ye? The meanest of all; because your

trickeries and adornments make you proud. Pitiful, despicable souls ye are!

How small ye look in God’s sight! Christ was humble; he stooped to do

anything which might serve others He had no pride, he was a humble man,

a friend of publicans and sinners, living and walking with them. So,

Christian, be thou like thy Master-one who can stoop; yea, be thou one

who thinks it no stooping, but rather esteems others better than himself,

counts it his honor to sit with the poorest of Christ’s people and says, “If

my name may be but written in the obscurest part of the book of life it is

enough for me, so unworthy am I of his notice!” Be like Christ in his

humility.

So might I continue, dear brethren, speaking of the various characteristics

of Christ Jesus; but as you can think of them as well as I can, I shall not do

so. It is easy for you to sit down and paint Jesus Christ, for you have him

drawn out here in his word. I find that time would fail me if I were to give

Was he zealous for his Master? So be you. Ever go about doing good. Let

not time be wasted. It is too precious. Was he self-denying, never looking

to his own interest? So be you. Was he devout? So be you fervent in your

prayers. Had he deference to his Father’s will? So submit yourselves to

him. Was he patient? So learn to endure. And best of all, as the highest

portraiture of Jesus, try to forgive your enemies, as he did; and let those

sublime words of your Master, “Father, forgive them, for they know not

what they do,” always ring in your ears. When you are prompted to

revenge, when hot anger starts, bridle the steed at once, and let it not dash

forward with you headlong. Remember, anger is temporary insanity.

Forgive as you hope to be forgiven. Heap coals of fire on the head of your

foe by your kindness to him. Good for evil, recollect, is Godlike. Be

Godlike then; and in all ways and by all means, so live that your enemies

may say, “He has been with Jesus.”

world that persons ought to be very religious on a Sunday, but that it does

not matter what they are on a Monday. How many pious preachers are

there on the Sabbath-day who are very impious preachers during the rest of

the week! How many are there who come up to the house of God with a

solemn countenance who join in the song and profess to pray, yet have

neither part nor lot in the matter, but are “in that gall of bitterness and in

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the bonds of iniquity!” This is true of some of you who are present here.

When should a Christian, then be like Jesus Christ? Is there a time when he

may strip off his regimentals-when the warrior may unbuckle his armor,

and become like other men? Oh! no; at all times, and in every place let the

Christian be what he professes to be. I remember talking some time ago

with a person who said, “I do not like visitors who come to my house and

introduce religion, I think we ought to have religion on the Sabbath-day,

when we go to the house of God, but not in the drawing-room.” I

suggested to the individual, that there would be a great deal of work for

the upholsterers if there be no religion except in the house of God. “How is

that?” was the question. “Why,” I replied, “we should need to have beds

fitted up in all our places of worship, for surely we need religion to die

with, and, consequently, every one would want to die there.” Ay, we all

need the consolations of God at last; but how can we expect to enjoy them

unless we obey the precepts of religion during life? My brethren, let me

some sort of publicity; many of us are called to work before our fellow

men every day. We are watched; our words are caught; our lives are

examined-taken to pieces. The eagle-eyed, argue-eyed world observes

everything we do; and sharp critics are upon us. Let us live the life of

Christ in public. Let us take care that we exhibit our Master, and not

ourselves-so that we can say, “It is no lon